Sisters, Sisters . . .

I had a little {photo shoot} with the girls back in January.

I love it when they play together and are nice to each other!

It makes a mother happy :)

I absolutely LOVE this picture!
Oh how I love Kate's little double chin :)

 Kisses!

 Hugs!

So precious

Katers!

 

Emmy!

What beautiful girls we have!

Kate {18 Months}

Kate turned 18 months in December - yeah, that's how far behind I am!!!

Here were her stats:

{Height} - 32.5 inches {75th % - which, by the way, the dr said was probably wrong since she's so. dang. tall.  The MA measured her wrong}

{Weight} - 27 lbs, 12 oz {88th %}

 {with grammy's reading glasses on}

This girl is full of life and sass!

She loves throwing tantrums and is really, really great at it.

She pulls Emmy's hair or hits her when she's mad at her.  Because of this, she gets put on time-out every now and then.  But the kicker is that she likes time-out!  After I take her out of time-out, she asks to go back . . . I don't think she gets the concept quite yet.

Kate is great at saying prayers!  We tell her what to say, and she does her best at saying all of the words.  It's so precious and so cute.

She is such a great talker and knows her animal sounds {dog, cat, horse, pig, cow, lamb, duck - the basics} and can sort of count.  Her counting sounds like this,

"one, six, nine, ten!"  I love it when she does that :)

She knows one of her shapes - the circle!  And she can sort of draw it.  She will keep drawing around and around and say, "circle!"

Her "lamby" {pictured in the top and bottom photos} is attached to her hip.  She can't go anywhere without lamby!  Needless to say, lamby gets washed every week.

Kate is a total daddy's girl!!!!  If daddy is home, she wants nothing to do with her mom.  If I try to pick her up or console her in any way, she denies me!  She just wants her dad.

She loves watching Tinkerbell and Diego.  They are her favorites!

Her favorite foods are berries {of any kind}, olives, hot dogs, applesauce and green beans.  She has always been such a great eater - SO unlike her sister.  Oh, and she LOVES her milk!

{swimming at the new aquatic center}

Kate Isabella is so spunky and so stubborn!

What are we going to do when she is a teenager?!

I'm a little worried about that one . . . 

But there's no doubt about it - our family would not be the same without this little ray of sunshine in it!

It's been so long . . .

I'm Fired.  F-I-R-E-D, Fired.  With a capitol "F"!

My poor little blog has been neglected lately and it's time I get my booty going and update it.

I will be doing a few different posts to get this blog nice and updated.

And we are still going private.  I made one last announcement on Facebook and am waiting to see if anyone else wants an invite before I make the switch.  So it will be sometime this week.  Just thought I'd let ya'll know since I know you're waiting in anticipation . . .

Bath time at our house . . .

Kate LOVES baths!  

Here she is, excitedly waiting for the tub to fill up:

This picture makes me SO happy!  I smile every time I look at it!  How come baby bums are so cute?!

And I swear, Kate has pooped in the tub more times than I can count.  What's up with that???  Emmy has NEVER pooped in the tub!

And here is Emmy after her bath, tap shoe and all.  She doesn't care that it's way too big for her :)

She is our singing and dancing fool!

She will often tell me to stop singing because she wants to sing.  And I have to often remind her that whoever wants to sing is allowed to sing.  The little stinker!

Going Private

I've decided to go private again.

I keep our family blog primarily for journaling purposes, so I don't feel the need to have all of our family stuff out there for people I don't know to view.

I don't have time for scrapbooking, so I blog w/ lots of pictures.

In fact, I just printed out my first blog books.
So exciting!

I will probably go private in a week or two.  If you gave me your email address the first time I went private, you will still be able to view the blog.

If not, then leave me your email address and I will put you on the list!
 

Peace out!

The Little Photographer

Emmy has loved taking pictures with my camera lately.

Here are some of my favorites:

Aww, so cute :)

So artistic!  I love that she put the camera on the floor to take the picture.

This one totally freaks me out - the flash wasn't up so it blurred the picture, making Kate look like a weird child with drawn-in eyebrows . . .

I'm in my work-out clothes, post work-out.  Beautiful.

Work-out clothes again.  

Maybe we should try having her take a pic of me when I'm not nasty . . .

She wanted me to growl and reach for the camera :)

Christmas 2010

Here's what went down on Christmas day this year.

The girls woke up and got going on those presents!

Kate was just happy to tear the wrapping paper.  For real.  That could have been her Christmas present, just unwrapping gifts.

She thought that was great!

Kate asked for a new baby stroller since her old one broke.  She also got her very own doll to push in the stroller.  She was cruising with that thing, running all around the island in the kitchen!

She also got a Leap Frog fridge magnet toy (She loves watching Letter Factory and knows almost all the sounds that go with each letter.  She's such a smarty!), some clothes, a new dress-up dress and a few things in her stocking.  Santa was sure not to overdo it this year.  Every year we say we won't overdo it, but this year we really didn't (at least w/ Kate).

Emmy opened her presents (some new dress-ups, dresses {that is all she wants to wear.  I can never get her to wear pants!}, a Memory game, a Tangled/Rapunzel game to go with her Leapster and some things in her stocking).  

She had asked Santa for a new bike.  Well, sneaky Santa, he hid it behind a chair and covered it with a blanket!  When we found it, Emmy ripped that blanket right off and was so excited!

She was ready to put her helmet on and ride that princess bike:

She also got a Rapunzel Barbie and a Tag Reader from Leap Frog with a bunch of books to read with it from Grammy and Papa.  She was really spoiled this year for Christmas!

As for Jake and Michelle:

Jake got a new gun {oh how we loves his guns}, a new phone and a few knick-knacks for Christmas.

Michelle was spoiled and got a Kindle!  Along with some new boots, a popcorn popper and a few other knick-knacks.

I try not to make Christmas about the gifts, but it sure is fun to open presents on Christmas!  It's even more fun to watch your kids see what Santa brought them and open all the beautifully wrapped presents.  

Santa actually only brings one present to each child in our family each year and the rest are from mom and dad.  Otherwise, Santa wouldn't be able to fit everything in his sack!  And we know which presents are from Santa because there is a little silver bell tied to them.

The rest of Christmas day was totally relaxed.  We spent the day in our jammies (I wish we could do that more often!) and nibbled on yummy food all day.  

Poor mommy got sick that night and most of what she ate came right back up.  But luckily she felt better the next day :)

We really loved spending time with each other and with our family that lives nearby {we live right next door to Grammy and Papa.  Lindsey and her family came up in the afternoon and spent the night}.  We watched movies, relaxed and played with our new gifts.

We had such a fabulous Christmas this year and hope you did, too!

Christmas Eve 2010

I am WAY behind on blogging!

Time to play catch-up.

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year!

We LOVED having Jake home {Besides work.  I love breaks from school!}.

We LOVED spending time with family.

We LOVED eating delicious treats :)

We LOVED the spirit of Christmas that filled our home.

Every Christmas Eve, we go to my sister's house in St. George for a Hansen family Christmas party.  We've done it for the last 4 or 5 years.  We eat dinner, exchange some gifts, and have a great time.

The grandkids put together a gingerbread house {the girls are wearing Christmas aprons that Grammy gave them}:

 {Dawson, Dylan, Emmy and Ella}

Kate was getting into the kitchen cupboards - do you like her shoes?  She put them on herself.  One of her own and one of Dawson's :)

Papa read the Christmas story from Luke:

This year my mom wrote a story called "The Key to Christmas."  She got the grandkids their own "Christmas Keys" to hang on the tree to remind them of the true meaning of Christmas.  She read the story to us before she gave the kids their keys:

We also watch Mr. Kruger's Christmas every year.  It's a tradition that we've had ever since I was little.  

Before it was available on DVD, we used to go to the Visitor's Center at the temple and watch it every Christmas season.  I love it!

 

The three Hansen girls :)

{Complete with cardigans - we didn't plan on all wearing cardigans, but we showed up in them!  Ha ha ha!  We must be related . . . }

And Grammy got everyone PJ's!

{My mom has gotten us Christmas Eve PJ's ever since I can remember and she's kept up the tradition with the grandkids - and us this year, too!}

Emmy in her Tinkerbell PJ's:

The girls in their PJ's w/ daddy:

Linds and Michelle in their matching PJ's:

My Grandma Hansen comes to the party every year, too!  And, of course, my adorable Aunt Shelley.

{Papa, Grandma and Shelley - all wearing red!

My parents got Shelley this hat, flower clip and necklace for Christmas (all from Binga Bows!).  Shelley LOVED them!  It was really cute.  She was smiling from ear to ear when she put them on}

What is better than spending time with family and focusing on the Savior?  

I can't think of too many things.

My girls

These two girls are becoming good friends . . . what more could a mother ask for?

{How cute are they in these matching "Tangled" pj's?}

December Fun!

We've had a busy, busy, BUSY December this year!

We've had lots of fun things to do and see.

Let's see if we can wrap most of it up in one post, shall we?


Emmy had her recital for the performing group she's in, Platinum Performing Arts.
She did such a great job!

{Emmy and Max - they might get married someday . . . Max was trying to kiss her on the lips the other night, but Emmy was not having it.  Let's just hope she keeps that up as a teenager!}

Emmy also had a Christmas program at her preschool.  Her teacher put her front and center, and after they started, we knew why - she was the loudest one and knew all of the songs!

It was so cute!
It was so fun to go to her school and see her in that environment.


Jake and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary by going to Vegas for a few days.  It was MUCH needed and was seriously one of the best vacations we've been on!  We got one pic on our trip . . .

Then my friend, CC, and I threw an Ugly Christmas Sweater/White Elephant party.  It was SO much fun!
I decided to go all out.  I figured my clothes were ugly, why not match the hair and make-up to the occasion?

I was so hideous!  I had to pull out my '80's hairstyling skills.  I knew doing my hair like that in the '80's would pay off one day!

{CC and I in all of our ugly Christmas sweater glory!}

And Jake wore one of my grandpa's old suits.  My grandma was getting rid of a bunch of stuff so my mom brought some of it home for Jake.  I think this suit is from the '70's!  Jake looked like Fez from That '70's Show and our friend, Colt, looked like Kelso . . . what a perfect pair :)

 Oh, and our friend, Brooke, let us have the party at her house.  She lives in her grandma's old house, which has not been redecorated since the '60's or '70's!  It was PERFECT!

More fun things . . .
Emmy and I made Gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.
I didn't go all out and actually make the gingerbread like I did last year.  I didn't have the time or energy to do it!  Her best friend, Skye, came over and made some with her mom, too (who is CC from the pic above).

{Emmy being silly}

These girls are so silly together!
They both threw their hands up at the exact same time in the pic below.  They march to the beat of the same drum . . .
And Emmy makes sure to let me know that Skye is her best friend :)

And here's a pic of Kate since she's not in ANY of the other pics in this post - oops!  She was eating a granola bar and somehow a couple pieces got stuck to her hair and were just dangling there . . .

Along with all of these things,
my sister and I sang at the Dickens Festival, I sang at a benefit concert with West Coast Jazz Players (an amazing Jazz band located in St. George), I had a Christmas recital for my private vocal students, we had work Christmas parties and I sang with a woman's choir and also sang a duet for a Christmas fireside.  Oh, and we had a special Christmas activity for the YW.  I'm not kidding when I say we've been BUSY!  It's already been so nice for things to slow down a little.  Hopefully that's a sign of how next year will be, nice and relaxed!